This is not another article comparing why Marcos Maidana instead of Amir Khan deserves a shot at a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. Most people would agree that Khan’s extended absence from the ring was the main reason he was not chosen. Any top welterweight boxer who was active and successful last year deserves a fight over Khan against Mayweather. That being said let us evaluate Maidana’s “earned shot”.
Going all the way back down into light welterweight, Maidana made his first statement by defeating and exposing Victor Ortiz in 2009. Then he fought a bunch of unknown fighters until he reached Amir Khan. Regardless the fact Maidana hurt Khan late, he could not finish Khan, knock him down, and was outworked throughout the entire fight and earned his loss. It was not a controversial win, Khan simply out worked him. Then he basically goes toe for toe with a split decision win over an aging, fading, and a nearly retired Eric Morales that Danny Garcia finished off the following year.
In 2012, he finally makes the jump into welterweight. Currently with five fights in this weight class, he began his campaign with an embarrassing unanimous decision loss to Devon Alexander who simply out boxed him. Then he goes into another even brawler fight with Jesus Soto Karass, in a fight where whoever landed the KO blow was going to win. The next fight is against Martin Angel Martinez…who? Josesito Lopez was next, another fight where he was hurt, they brawled, and Maidana got the knockout. Most recently, he is getting major credit for beating Adrien Broner who has only one debatable win in welterweight and jumped up two weight classes, but Maidana could not knock him out, loss rounds to him, and admitted to being hurt late in the fight. Let us look at from another angle, if a fighter like Shawn Porter jumped up two weight classes and fought an opponent like Peter Quillin, Sergio Martinez, or Gennady Golovkin and loses, none of these middleweights would receive any credit for their victory. Maidana has shown he can get hurt, gets knocked down, and fades away around the middle rounds and vulnerable to fighters with high boxing IQs. His power is the only thing that helps him defeat B-level fighters in close fights.
This is Mayweather’s easiest opponent in years and he will prove that on May 3. If fans want to pay a minimum of $60 for a Pay Per View event in hopes that Maidana lands one shot against the hardest boxers to hit, I will wait and watch it for free on Showtime a the following Saturday. I honestly would not be surprised if Mayweather gets the knockout against him. I would rather pay for a Pacquiao vs. Bradley II because it at least it will be a more competitive fight.
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